La Palma holiday house: Puntagorda

Set on the edge of a small ravine looking down to the sea, this is a truly away from it all location. The house has lots of character with wooden floors and shutters, a great balcony to the bedroom and large bathroom with lots of fresh towels and a well equipped kitchen, we made good use of the electric juicer to squeeze the oranges from the tree outside the bedroom door.

The garden is also great, we had breakfast on the terrace most mornings whilst watching the resident lizards and birds and there's falcons and choughs flying over all the time. They was having an unusual cold spell while we was there so we made good use of the wood provided for the burner and we even toasted some chestnuts that we had collected at the same time.

The locals are the friendliest spaniards we have ever met, they always say hello and are happy to help, make sure you know some spanish as virtually no one speaks english. The village Spar shop stocks everything and the weekend market has lots of fresh produce, meat, crafts, wine and yummy cakes.

Take plenty of books and your walking boots as that is it, if you want shops or entertainment go into Los llanos or El paso about an hour away or Tazacorte 30 minutes for the beach. There's a few restaurants in the village but La Muralla twenty minutes away on the main road is excellent and only 1 euro for a glass of wine, cheaper than coffee.

This property is wonderful, comfortable and clean with lots of local walks, we would definately recommend it to lovers of culture and nature. A head for heights is required as some of the roads are a bit hair raising in the mountains, but worth it. We only met Rob and Hazel, who was managing the property briefly, they seemed really lovely and it would have been nice to chat some more to find out more about the area.